Data Hosting: National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)

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The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) measures:

  • use of illegal drugs, prescription drugs, alcohol, and tobacco
  • mental disorders, treatment, and co-occurring substance use and mental disorders

NSDUH data provides estimates of substance use and mental illness at the national, state, and sub-state levels.  NSDUH data also helps to identify the extent of substance use and mental illness among different sub-groups, can be used for estimates of trends over time, and measures the need for treatment services

About NSDUH

SAMHSA RDC Process

NSDUH restricted-use codebook for all available years are available on the SAMHSA RDC website under Preparing a quality application.

Location of Access:

Non-US citizens should contact the NCHS RDC, rdca@cdc.gov, to inquire about additional access requirements.

Proposal:

 

Application via SAP Portal

The application process for requesting access to SAMHSA RDC data is evolving. The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 calls for the Federal government to establish a standard application process (SAP) through which agencies, the Congressional Budget Office, State, local, and Tribal governments, researchers, and other individuals, as appropriate, may apply for access to confidential microdata. In response, the federal statistical system is developing the SAP Portal at www.ResearchDataGov.org. The SAP Portal is a web-based data catalog and common application that will serve as a “front door” to apply for restricted data from any of the 16 principal federal statistical agencies and units for evidence building purposes.

The SAP Portal is being implemented in a phased approach. On February 28, 2022, the federal statistical agencies launched the SAP Portal data catalog to provide prospective applicants with comprehensive metadata about federal statistical agencies’ confidential microdata. Beginning December 8, 2022, SAMHSA and other principal federal statistical agencies and units will begin accepting applications to the SAP Portal.

Keep in mind that output requests will NOT be affected by the SAP and should be requested directly through RDCA@samhsa.hhs.gov. Also, amendments and revisions of applications submitted prior to December 8, 2022, will continue to be sent to RDCA@samhsa.hhs.gov.

Additional notes

Whenever there is an official notice that the SAP system is not working properly, data users may create and submit applications in the conventional way (see above). Applications approved prior to the SAP implementation will continue to submit documentation (e.g., updated variable selection list, amendments, etc.) via RDCA@samhsa.hhs.gov.

To learn more about the SAP, please visit the Standard Application Process Overview webpage.

Confidentiality and Disclosure:

After the proposal is approved, all members of the research team are required to complete the Confidentiality orientation and other confidentiality requirements.

For more information, see section on “Security Protocol” on the SAMHSA RDC webpage and Section 5.2 “From Proposal Approval to RUF Data Access” in our “Guidelines for SAMHSA RDC Data Users” found on our webpage.

  • Confidentiality orientation
  • FSRDC: FSRDC users, mainly programmers, must apply for Special Sworn Status (SSS). The SSS application process does not begin until after proposal approval. Contact FSRDC for more information.

Output Review for Disclosures:

All output submitted for review should be the near final product.  SAMHSA RDC will not review frequency distributions or other large volumes of output.  When preparing your output for review, make sure the following rules are applied before you submit your output for review:

  • Include only weighted numbers in your output. Unweighted numbers will be considered on a case-by-case basis and must receive approval from SAMHSA RDC in order to be released.

Please see “Guidelines for SAMHSA RDC Data Users” on our webpage for a full list of requirements.

Follow these steps to request output review:

1) Save the output to the appropriate folder.

  1. NCHS ONSITE: Place all output in a folder titled: DDMMMYY_RDCID_PI Last Name
  2. DDMMMYY – Request Date with 3 or 4 letters month abbreviation
    ii. RDCID
    iii. PI Last Name – always use the researcher’s Last Name
  3. FSRDC: Follow FSRDC disclosure request procedures.

2) Email SAMHSA RDC the folder name and brief description of the output. The RDC Analyst will transfer your file to SAMHSA RDC within five business days.

3) SAMHSA RDC will review and release approved output within three weeks of receipt.